CHENNAI: The State government is planning to hand over 96 acres of reclaimed Perungudi dump site, located inside the Pallikaranai Ramsar site, to the forest department. The final decision will be made after a comprehensive scientific assessment of soil conditions underneath the surface.
On Monday, Blue Planet's portfolio company, Zigma Global Environ Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which was awarded the tender to dispose of the legacy waste at the Perungudi dump yard by Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) in February 2021, announced it has completed its task and processed 1.73 million cubic meters of municipal solid waste.
A landfill site visit was organized on the sidelines of the AVPN South Asia Summit 2024. The area, which had a 40-foot pile of legacy waste a year ago, is now cleared. However, GCC's Regional Deputy Commissioner (South), MP Amit, told TNIE that some legacy waste remains beneath the surface and needs to be biomined to restore the land to its original marshland state.
"Yes, the government is mulling the idea to hand over the reclaimed dumpsite to the forest department, but before that a detailed scientific assessment will be carried out. We will be roping in Anna University to conduct the study and give a feasibility report," Amit said.
The GCC official confirmed, that due to opposition from the public, the civil body has dropped the plan to build an eco-park in the reclaimed land. Instead, it will be restored into a marshland so that it will act as a carbon sink and help control flooding in areas like Velachery.
S Kanmani, professor and director of the Centre for Environmental Studies in Anna University told TNIE: "We are yet to commence the scientific assessment. It is too early to comment on whether it is feasible to biomine the legacy waste from underneath the reclaimed land in Perungudi. We don't know how many feet of legacy waste is present under the ground. Until the sampling is done and the preliminary results are analysed, we can't say anything."
Of the 225 acres of Perungudi dump yard, 96 acres have been reclaimed. With GCC running into trouble with the firm contracted to reclaim the remaining landfill area, fresh tenders are likely to be issued shortly.
Prashant Singh, co-founder and CEO of Blue Planet, said, "When the fresh tenders are floated, we will participate. After successful reclamation efforts at the Perungudi landfill, Blue Planet also secured 50% of the contract of a project to bio-mine the Kodungaiyur dumpyard, which spans 352 acres and contains approximately 66 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste," he said.
In Perungudi, over 1.7 million cubic meters of waste was processed, 0.33 million tonnes of RDF was used as alternate fuel in co-processing and 55,944 tonnes of CO2 savings by replacing fossil fuel was achieved among other benefits, according to the Blue Planet.
Aravindan Srinivasan, executive director of the Climate Action Platform at AVPN, said today there is a huge gap in investments flowing into waste management and recycling. "The Perungudi case is a good business model. Usually, waste is seen as a place where cash flows are dependent on the government due to risk perception. However, we want to change that perception by showcasing Perungudi's success, impact investors and Development Financial Institutions."
